>> reporter: tonight, on "20/20" -- >> why do people in this community continue to believe that you killed your wife? >> reporter: a game changer, just last week, in the story you may think you know. >> a new york man going on trial. >> cal harris says he did not kill his wife. >> cal harris, the millionaire husband. the nasty divorce. michele, the wife and mother who went missing on 9/11. but after 15 years and four different trials, did everyone get it wrong? >> who has a dog in the fight? who's got skin in the game? he does. >> reporter: for the first time since learning his fate, the man on the hot seat speaks out to "20/20."

>> you'd be hard pressed to think about this as a backdrop for a murder, right? >> well, there wasn't a murder here. >> something happened here. >> no, nothing happened here. >> reporter: but if it didn't, then where has his ex-wife been for the last 15 years? >> you've got no murder weapon. you've got no body. >> they live on over 200 acres of property. plenty of places to make someone disappear. >> is your camera on? >> reporter: "20/20" has been on the case for two years, combing over every inch of the investigation. >> the real crime scene here is out at the front gate where michele harris' van was found. >> reporter: charred clothing in a fire pit. >> there's a bra strap. there is a button. >> reporter: and other men in the area that night. for more than a decade, have they been chasing the wrong man? >> what we have on them is going to be shocking. everyone's going to be shocked. >> i'm prepared to be shocked now. tell me. >> reporter: bad blood.

>> good evening. i'm david muir. >> and i'm elizabeth vargas. tonight, the finish line of a murder trial, make that murder trials. cal harris, tried an almost record-breaking four times for the same time. a total of 36 jurors weighing in. >> and no body after 15 year sy. so, after watching, what will you think? we're live on facebook and twitter. let us know. here's matt gutman. >> reporter: driving the twisting roads of upstate new york, you'll find your fair share of scenic riverside views and plenty of indications the area is part of the haunted trail of new york state. but off this remote mountain road in tioga county something else seems haunting. in this vegetable garden lies a pile of charred trash and rubble. but it's not your garden variety heap. the soot and cinder may hold answers to a 15-year-old mystery.

>> it looked just like a place where you'd have a bonfire during a party. >> reporter: working with forensic archeologists these private investigators believe they've discovered critical clues in the disappearance of 35-year-old michele harris, a woman missing since 2001. >> what comes out of here is a series of artifacts. there's a bra strap, there's a button that appears to come from probably some form of women's apparel. >> reporter: even if they were remnants of michele's clothes, the whereabouts of the woman who wore them is still unknown. >> where do we start looking for michele harris? i would posit that we're probably standing in the middle of someplace where somebody should start looking. >> reporter: but michele's disappearance would have the misfortune of coinciding with the terror attacks on 9/11. 225 miles away in new york city it was september 11th, 2001. and with state troopers pouring

into new york city by the hundreds, it left behind a skeleton staff to investigate a missing wife and doting mother of four. >> michele was a good, loving, laughing, great person. mom. friend. >> reporter: barb thayer was the harris family nanny who helped michele care for her four young children. >> she loved the babies, loved being pregnant. she loved being a mother. >> reporter: for six years thayer worked for michele and her husband cal, one of the biggest fish in a small county. a former all-american lacrosse player in college. an outdoorsman, and a successful businessman whose wealthy family owned a chain of car dealerships. did it seem like they had a good relationship? >> i would have said very much so, in the beginning, yeah. >> reporter: when michele first met cal harris she was working in the office at one of those dealerships, as cal recalled when "20/20" first interviewed

him in 2014. >> she was just, uh, a stunningly beautiful, uh, girl. just very attractive, she was fun, she had a great personality. >> reporter: cal's aunt merry remembers meeting michele at a family gathering. >> i remember thinking that it was a good match. she was very funny, very vibrant and just a very happy person. >> reporter: michele and cal married in 1990 on the harris family's estate. 250 acres pristine acres with a private lake. 29-year-old cal was a divorcee. but the marriage was michele's first. >> it was storybook wedding, for sure, at empire lake. she had this precious, sort of country wedding gown. the bridesmaids were dressed accordingly. >> reporter: the couple lived in this house high on the hill and after four years of marriage their first tow-headed child, taylor, was born, followed quickly by his sisters cayla and jenna and finally baby tanner. four children in five years. friends say michele was a busy

now stay-at-home mom. >> she was amazing with the kids. i'd go in in the morning and things would be in disarray. she'd sit at the counter and paint the girls' fingernails and toenails while the sink was full of dishes. things like that. but those things didn't bother her. >> reporter: michele's husband cal says that while they'd wanted a large family, their relationship became strained under the weight of constant child care. >> we certainly complicated things by having more kids, no question about it. >> reporter: things went from strained to toxic just about the time their last child, tanner, was born. cal harris admits he had an affair and friends say michele was devastated when she found out. >> something happened in that last year or so. something snapped. >> reporter: maybe because she learned you were cheating on her. >> there had been tension and rift between us before that. >> reporter: cal says michele had an affair, too. and in january of 2001, after ten years of marriage, michele harris filed for divorce. michele's family says she came to them and said that cal told

her he could make her disappear. although they declined our request for an interview, listen to what michele's sister-in-law shannon and brother greg taylor told cbs news. >> i got the perfect place to put your body, they'll never find you. >> that's not something you say unless in the back of your mind you think, you know, i might just do this. >> that was something that supposedly, michele said to them about something i supposedly said to her, but that was not true. so, there was no rage, there was no anger. things were going well here at the house, we were getting along. >> reporter: cal may have thought there was nothing to fear, but michele wasn't taking any chances. she removed cal's guns from their house, giving them to her brother greg. why was it during that period of time that michele removed the guns from this house and gave them to her brother? >> she removed the guns when she told me she was filing for a divorce. because i was upset at that time and we did have an argument at that time.

>> reporter: why did she do that, then? >> she's trying to build a case. she wants a divorce. >> reporter: michele and cal continued to live together in their house on the hill because michele's lawyer told her if she left, she could risk losing custody of the kids. >> she told me that if she left at that point, that would be considered abandonment and she would forfeit the kids. >> reporter: and divorce meant cal could lose something else. possibly half of the fortune he'd built up during their marriage. >> we're in a divorce. there's a lot of money involved. i get all that, but you have to see and look into the details of what was going on in her personal life. >> reporter: cal harris says they were under one roof, but living separate lives. >> she was sleeping downstairs on the coach, and i was sleeping upstairs. i was trying to keep it together for the kids, but i think at that point she had already moved on. >> reporter: after filing for divorce, the millionaire's wife took a waitressing job at a dive bar. and she started dating, apparently relieved to be moving on.

>> we went for a horse ride and she said, "i can't believe i'm so happy. i'm finally getting my life back." those were her exact words. >> reporter: but was her husband cal so happy about it? he'd made michele what he considered a generous offer. $800,000 doled out over ten years. that's $80,000 a year. but given the car dealerships and the vast house michele's attorney robert miller thought cal was worth millions. his son todd miller. >> my father was not going to accept that offer. he felt that it wasn't near what the businesses were worth. >> reporter: on the morning of september 12th michele had scheduled a meeting with her divorce lawyer. but she never made it. >> we all waited and she never showed up, which had never happened before. so he knew the history between her and cal. and instantly assumed something happened to her.

>> reporter: and that morning, it did. when we come back, suspicious things around the house. a mom's abandoned mini-van. and why is there blood in the kitchen? >> people have blood in their homes. you know that, everybody knows that. >> reporter: stay with us. he rescued their rover. he observed their methods... ...and was invited to join the crew for the remainder of the mission. no. james left to discover new frontiers... ...and potable water. how far will you take the all-new rav4 hybrid? toyota. let's go places. try micellar water want a dfrom garnier skinactive. the micelles attract dirt like a magnet to: 1. remove makeup 2. cleanse

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owego had a golden couple it was cal and michele. owego, a tiny town on the twisting susquehanna river, is a native american word meaning "at the fork." cal and michele harris had reached that fork and after ten years of marriage were getting a divorce. they were living under the same roof, but not sharing the same bed. she was now dating and waitressing at a local watering hole called lefty's. >> i knew she had a boyfriend and she was spending time with him. but i also knew that she was hanging around a bad crowd down at this bar where she worked. >> reporter: on september 11th, 2001, the day of the terror attacks, the family's nanny, barb thayer, noticed a distracted michele getting ready for work. and how was michele that day? >> frantic. i know she had a headache and she was late for work. >> reporter: after the dinner shift ended at 9:00 p.m.,

michele had some drinks with co-workers at lefty's to unwind and talk about the country's unimaginable day. then she left to visit her new boyfriend, 23-year-old brian earley, who insists michele returned home before midnight. then the following morning, barb thayer received a call from the harris home just after 7:00 a.m. who called you? >> cal. in the morning. >> reporter: what did he say? >> he just said, michele didn't come home, and would i come up and help get the kids ready for school? i said, "yes." and that had never happened before. >> reporter: concerned, thayer quickly drove to the harris house. she immediately noticed something strange. michele's ford minivan sitting at the end of their long driveway, with no one inside. keys in the ignition. from the time that you rolled into that driveway and saw that minivan. how long did it take you to know what happened? >> i'm going to say maybe four minutes? >> reporter: four minutes until thayer says she started to suspect foul play.

she rushed to the house to get some answers from michele's estranged husband, cal. >> i asked where michele was and i was told that she went to new york city. >> reporter: went to new york city? >> i doubt very seriously that anybody would have been able to get into new york city on september the 12th. it was just a completely implausible, nonsensical tale. >> it was like a blood-draining moment. the hair stands up on the back of your neck and you just know something. >> reporter: thayer says she found it curious that cal seemed more concerned with getting the kids packed off to school than locating his wife. he asked her to retrieve michele's car from the end of the driveway and off he went to work. the only ones panicking, it seems, were michele's friends. listen to this frantic voicemail from her friend nikki burdick. >> where the hell are you? you need to call me as soon as freaking possible. i am worried to death about you.

you need to call me on my cell phone. good-bye. >> reporter: failing to reach michele, burdick called michele's divorce attorney, robert miller. his son todd was there. >> and that's when my dad called the police. >> her divorce lawyer is the one that ultimately contacts the police. now that's a fine how do you do. >> common sense dictates that you do. call the authorities. good grief, my wife's not home. >> reporter: but was it foul play or had michele run off? within hours, a manhunt ensued. police prowling the harris estate, the dense forests and that glimmering lake. there was no sign of michele on the grounds. and inside the house, nothing seemed amiss at first. but upon closer examination investigators find something alarming. blood. tiny droplets of blood. some spattered in a kitchen

alcove. on the door and on the rug. and just beyond, through the door, police found what appears to be dried blood under peeling paint on the garage floor. upon closer examination, it seemed to investigators that someone had tried to wipe it up. dna testing confirmed some of the blood was michele's. why did they have michele's dna on them? >> not all of them have michele's dna on them. people have blood in their homes. you know that. everybody knows that. this is not a crime scene. >> reporter: but police weren't buying what this car dealer was selling. and they were now eyeing cal harris, not as a spouse spurned, but as a potential murder suspect. >> a helicopter on top of my house. i could see the pilot's face hovering right over the roof of my home. >> cal always understood that he was going to be a suspect. i mean, it's -- they were going through a divorce.

there were domestic issues. but i also believe that because he knew he was innocent, he had nothing to lose. >> reporter: months went by and the harris children began to wonder about their missing mother. when they asked you where their mommy was, what did you tell them? >> their mom was gone, and that she never would have left him that she was taken from them. >> reporter: after four long years there was still no michele, no murder weapon and no smoking gun, but finally there was movement. police arrested their prime suspect, michele's husband, cal harris. >> the chatter that was going on at that time was sort of like a, "well, it's about time" type of attitude. jury selection took a very long time. it was hard to find somebody that didn't know michele, that

didn't know cal harris. >> reporter: when we come back -- the wealthy car dealer on trial. a jury of his peers slammed the door on the car dealer. but facing life in prison, cal gets a lifeline from a complete stranger. >> if somebody was on the outside looking in it would almost start to look like a soap opera to them. you know, what's going to happen next in the cal harris case? you know, who's going to come forward next? >> reporter: stay with us. if you have allergy congestion, muddling through your morning is nothing new. ...your nose is the only thing on your mind... ...and to get relief, anything is fair game. introducing rhinocort® allergy spray from the makers of zyrtec®. powerful relief from your most frustrating nasal allergy symptom* ,all day and all night. hasn't your nose been through enough already? try new rhinocort® allergy spray. muddle no more®

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"20/20" continues, with bad blood. >> reporter: taylor, cayla, jenna and tanner harris grew up on this placid lake. their childhood, though, was far less tranquil. they barely remember their mom's disappearance in 2001. but they do remember their dad's arrest for her murder four years later. what was that like? >> it was pretty rough. >> we didn't get to say bye, we

just came home one day after school and our aunt and uncle and our nanny were there and told us about it. >> reporter: did they ever ask you, daddy, did you kill mom? >> no. they've never asked me that. >> reporter: now, normally the biggest event around owego is the annual strawberry festival. >> cal, anything to say? >> reporter: but in may, 2007, townsfolk got out their pitchforks for a different event. one of the wealthiest men in the county, cal harris, was about to stand trial. >> there was a lot of presumption that cal harris was guilty among all the residents in tioga county. >> reporter: but the case wouldn't be as easy to sell as one of cal's cars, that according to abc news legal anchor dan abrams and legal analyst and former prosecutor sunny hostin. >> you've got no murder weapon. you've got no body. >> you still have to be able to frame the story as a prosecutor. and so you're going to look at motive. you're going to look at opportunity. and you're going to look at behavior. >> reporter: when it came to

motive, prosecutors say harris had reason enough to kill his wife. >> you have a man who is in the middle of a bitter divorce. he doesn't want to give up half of his money. he doesn't want to lose custody of his children. there are a lot less reasons to kill someone. >> reporter: as for opportunity, prosecutors say cal's estate wasn't just an outdoorsman's playground but perfect grounds for foul play despite that exhaustive search by authorities. >> they live on over 200 acres of property that he knows extremely well. plenty of places to make someone disappear. >> reporter: and finally, prosecutors point to cal harris' behavior. they say he wasn't exactly acting like a bereaved husband. >> he acted really strangely. he didn't ask about her well-being. that's a pretty good story for a jury. >> i think the prosecution had a great and compelling story. they just didn't have a lot of evidence. and that's the problem. >> that is the problem. >> reporter: but remember, prosecutors did have some physical evidence.

that small amount of blood found inside the house. and the prosecution said the blood spatter pattern revealed that michele had been attacked with a blunt object. >> jurors love the c.s.i. effect, they love that kind of forensic testimony. you have that in this case. >> reporter: and ultimately, it was that blood evidence that largely carried the day. prosecutors scoring a stunning victory, cal harris was convicted of second degree murder. >> calvin harris was convicted of killing his estranged wife michele. a jury determined there was enough evidence to convict harris of second degree murder. >> i was in shock. i just went numb. all i could think about was that i'm not going to be going home. i'm not going to see my kids. >> reporter: and then, just days before he was to be sentenced possibly for life behind bars, a stunning development that upends the entire case. from out of nowhere, this man

emerges. a farmer named kevin tubbs who plants the seeds of doubt. claiming that at dawn on the day michele disappeared he spotted not one, but two vehicles at the front of harris' long driveway. here he is, telling cbs news what he saw. >> there's a man at the back of the pickup. there's a woman at the side of the pickup. she was a blonde-haired woman. it appeared that she was crying. and it appeared that he was a little upset. >> reporter: but how could michele have been alive that morning, when prosecutors argued that cal had killed his wife inside the house earlier during the night? >> if you believe kevin tubbs, you simply can't convict cal harris, because the prosecution's timeline has been completely shattered. >> reporter: and sure enough, the judge found tubbs' account to be credible and to the dismay of michele's family and friends he threw out harris' conviction. >> the judge just looked down at me and said, unhandcuff him. and i just started bawling.

i just started crying. >> the new evidence could possibly cause a different outcome. calvin harris is free on bail. >> reporter: but the prosecutors are relentless. in june of 2009, they put him on trial for a second time. now, jurors hear tubbs' account and harris himself takes the stand. and once more, the jury is not buying it. he's convicted again of michele's murder. he's headed to the slammer for 25 years to life. what was going through your mind? >> just missing the kids growing up. just missing all those special moments, those special events. >> reporter: but after spending over three years in prison, the topsy-turvy tioga trial saga takes yet another astonishing turn. this time for harris! an appeals court rules that the judge improperly allowed hearsay testimony in as evidence. believe it or not, cal harris' murder conviction was overturned -- again! >> a new york appeals court orders a new trial for cal harris. >> reporter: but as you'll

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"20/20" continues. with bad blood. >> reporter: when you have the kind of money cal harris had, you can afford the multi-million dollar house on a lake. you'd be hard pressed to think of this as a backdrop for a murder. >> well, there wasn't a murder here. >> reporter: and if you're accused of murdering your wife, enough money to pay for the best

defense, not once but four times. >> ultimately what cal was looking for, i think, is somebody that was going to be fairly aggressive both at obviously defending him but more to the point, to finding out who actually killed his wife. >> reporter: bruce barket took over cal harris' case before his third murder trial in 2015, and enlisted a highly paid dream team of former police detectives and private investigators to clear their client's name. so what did investigators see when they first started looking at this house? >> so this was the scene where they found the blood splatter. minute little droplets of blood. >> reporter: forensic expert natalie beyer was hired to take a closer look at those blood stains found inside the harris home. so the only place where there was blood spatter of any kind was in this area? >> correct. and it isn't a crime scene. >> reporter: of course, you're paid to say that.

>> i'm paid to review cases forensically, and it didn't exist here. >> reporter: the blood evidence was the crux of the prosecution's case against cal harris in those convictions in trials one and two. but the prosecution is relentless, hoping a third trial will be the charm. ten drops of blood? >> ten drops of blood. >> reporter: still, what were ten drops of blood and spatters about a millimeter wide, what were they doing here? >> good questions, no idea. >> reporter: seems jurors in cal's third murder trial couldn't figure that out either. and after 11 excruciating days of deliberation, they were hung. a mistrial was declared. some of the blood was michele's, right? >> some of the blood was michele's, but you can't tell at what time of the year, of the day, when that blood was deposited. >> reporter: still, prosecutors aren't giving up. this past december, on the eve of harris' fourth trial, the defense hires bill flanagan to

get a fresh perspective on the case. he's a retired deputy police commissioner turned grizzled private eye. >> the real crime scene here is out at the front gate where michele harris' van was found. >> reporter: flanagan says that's the spot local farmer kevin tubbs claimed to have seen a blonde woman fitting michele's description, and another man, the morning she went missing. defense team investigator dave beers. >> after kevin tubbs came forward, i went back to the drawing board to try to find out if any of the suspects in the case drove a dark pickup truck. >> reporter: so who was this mysterious man? to try to find out, the investigators start taking a closer look at some of the men michele might have known and any who might drive a dark pickup. they zero in on this man, stacy stewart, who frequented lefty's bar where michele was slinging drinks. >> when i started looking into stacy, one thing led to another. >> reporter: he's the guy?

>> he fit the physical description of kevin tubbs described, and he owned a 2000 black chevy pickup. so the red flags went up right away. >> reporter: as you might imagine, cal harris' attorneys were eager to talk to stacy stewart. what you're about to hear is a never before heard audio recording of an interview between stewart and cal harris' defense team. >> there were people that said you were obsessed with her. that you were giving her $100 tips, that, you know, that kind of stuff. >> damn. >> reporter: they want to know just how well he knew her. >> there were a couple of people that have told investigators and police over the course of time you were involved with her sexually. >> i have never been alone with that girl. >> reporter: stewart vehemently denies ever dating michele or even seeing her that night. but the defense feels they have a new lead after talking to him. stewart tells them around the time michele harris went missing, this man, chris thomason, an old drinking

buddy, came to his home with a female friend. they were covered in blood. >> they showed up with bloody clothes one night? >> it looked like they might have skinned a deer or something. >> what did they do with the clothing? >> they burned it. >> reporter: which brings us all the way back to that fire pit. this is where stacy stewart claims that it was chris thomason who burned those bloody clothes. remember that bra strap? the defense believes it could have been michele harris'. what are these? >> there's a bra strap. there is a button that appears to come from some form of women's apparel. >> reporter: this is more archaeology than criminology. >> it is, absolutely. >> reporter: you can see where this is going. these private eyes peering back into the past and seeing stacy stewart or chris thomason somehow linked to michele harris' disappearance or maybe even her murder. >> i don't know who's responsible for michele harris' demise. what i believe at this juncture is that there are at least two people associated with this property and this pit that have more information than they have

given to anyone at this juncture. >> reporter: tonight, chris thomason sits in a texas jail, incarcerated for an unrelated crime. we reached out to him, but he declined comment. but on those audio recordings he denies ever burning anyone's clothes. >> i didn't -- i didn't do anything. i don't know anything. >> reporter: as for stacy stewart, he was also called to testify in cal harris' fourth trial but ended up a no-show. so we tried to find him. real estate records obtained by "20/20" show an address for the elusive stacy stewart, 1,700 miles away in new braunfels, texas. but that address leads us to this empty lot. no sign of stewart here. >> i think texas is central to potentially finding michele. >> reporter: so we turned to investigator bill flanagan for help.

he helped us track down this woman, julie brinkman, stacy stewart's ex-girlfriend. julie told us about a strange conversation she had with stewart in january 2015 after a night of drinking. >> he initially said that he didn't know the victim in the case. >> reporter: but julie says stacy stewart's story gradually changed as the night wore on. >> he brought it up again later in the evening and he said, i was the last person to be seen with her alive. >> reporter: julie says it all seemed rather insignificant until stewart told her he "knew how to hide a body." but is the defense grasping at straws? watch what happens next. anything? can i h hey siri, what's at&t's latest offer? oh, i don't think that siri can... right now, switch to at&t for an iphone and get one free. wow, is that right? yeah, it's basically... yes. that is the current offer from at&t. okay siri, you don't know everything. well, i know you asked me to call you the at&t hostess with the mostest. okay, shut her down. turn it off. right now,

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>> reporter: it's a may morning in schoharie, new york. another tiny town with another native american name, but it's more than just a change of scenery for cal harris. it's a change of venue. the defense fought to move the case here after their polling determined the name cal harris

was toxic in tioga county. >> 97% of them, just by name, when you mentioned cal harris, knew that that was a case about a guy who was on trial who had been convicted twice before of murdering his wife. >> reporter: something else is different here at harris' fourth trial. defense attorney bruce barket is rolling the dice, opting for a bench trial instead of a jury trial, as he tries to convince a judge harris is not guilty of second degree murder. it's a very different thing trying to convince a single person, a judge rather than a jury. and you are theatrical. and you are -- your delivery -- >> i don't know if i'm theatrical. i think i'm just expressive. >> reporter: maybe a little too expressive for judge richard mott, a guy who likes to wear a bow tie and drive a jaguar, but doesn't care for flashy in his courtroom. >> the first day of the trial, i was, i swear, 30 seconds late. and he said, "you're late. this will never happen again."

really scolded me. >> reporter: what you're about to watch is the only portion of cal harris' four trials ever broadcast -- closing arguments. >> look at cal. people judge him, people look at him. >> reporter: the defense decides to confront a nagging issue that has dogged cal harris throughout his ordeal. >> i wanted to botox his forehead. because every picture that they would snap of him was like this. he would furrow his eyebrows. so he doesn't play to the press. he doesn't go out of his way to act innocent. he is innocent. and if you don't believe it, too bad. that's his attitude. >> reporter: but the defense had been dealt a huge blow. all that was uncovered at that burn pit? judge mott tossed it out, ruling that it was inadmissible because there was no dna link to michelle harris. and those audio recordings from alternative suspects? they were thrown out, too. so barket then turns his attention to the evidence -- or lack thereof.

barket claims the small amount of blood found inside the harris home is not evidence of a crime. >> even if it was all michelle's blood, and it clearly is not, ten drops fits in this vial. >> reporter: next, barket takes aim at that blood evidence in a different way, questioning the authenticity of those crime scene photos. >> the color is off by a significant margin. the exposure is wrong. you can't rely on that kind of evidence to convict a man of murder. >> reporter: barket says he knows why the photos are so red. >> it was one of the more deceptive things i've seen prosecutors engage in. they literally manufactured evidence here. >> reporter: barket says this video -- outtakes subpoenaed by the defense from cbs -- is proof the photos were tampered with. members of the prosecution's team and renowned forensics expert dr. henry lee talking about pictures that had been

altered to compensate for bad photography work at the crime scene. >> another thing that they did with some of these photographs where they had the flash problem is they exposed or they somehow treated them. >> exposure correction. they corrected the exposure. >> reporter: the state police say they didn't alter or enhance any photos that were submitted for evidence at trial. >> i could not believe that you had a district attorney, a senior investigator from the state police, and henry lee sitting there, talking about altered photographs. >> reporter: conversely, barket says the testimony of kevin tubbs is true blue. remember, he's the witness who testified he saw a man and a woman at the base of harris' driveway on september 12th. >> kevin tubbs had no reason to fabricate, no reason to make anything up, no reason to come forward. he's not an attention seeker. >> reporter: now it's kirk martin's chance to sway the

judge his way. the tioga county d.a. presented his argument in vivid detail. >> she bled on the floor of the garage, and the defendant cleaned up that blood. michele harris was murdered by that man sitting right there. >> reporter: the prosecution says the mere name stacey stewart is nothing more than an attempt to deflect attention away from cal harris. >> what possible diabolical motive would stacey stewart have to murder michelle harris, wife of the defendant? >> reporter: the prosecution says it was harris who had all the tools to make a body disappear. >> he's got vehicles to load michele's body into. there was the gator and the atvs in the garage. he's got garbage bags to put her in, and the stuff from the kitchen island. we acknowledge he found a good spot, a spot that he knew would make her disappear. >> reporter: and martin reminds the court cal harris had the means and the motive and the opportunity. >> michele died in an act of domestic violence at the hands

of her familiar adversary. her husband, the defendant, calvin harris. >> reporter: with that -- judge mott begins his deliberations. >> everyone here at the courthouse is now playing the waiting game like you said, waiting on judge richard mott. >> reporter: and just last week, the judge reached his decision. >> he has a somber expression on his face. and at that point, i thought, "oh, no." >> he came out. he was stern. he looked at nobody. >> and he says, "in the people versus cal harris, indictment number 2,009, i find the defendant not guilty. bail in the amount of $500,000 is exonerated." and he gets up and walks out. >> it was stunning. >> not guilty. that's the verdict calvin harris heard today at his fourth murder trial. >> reporter: in a reversal of fortune, cal harris, a man who could easily have left this building in handcuffs, instead walks out a free man.

>> i thought i was done and i was numb, and then when he came back with a not guilty, i was shocked. i was truly shocked. >> reporter: coming up -- cal harris talking tough. >> what we have on them is going to be music: "pretty woman" with roy orbison ♪ of course you go all out for date night... ♪ ...even if you're just staying in. ♪ walgreens has all the beauty products you need for whatever makes you feel beautiful. walgreens. at the corner of happy and healthy.

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i need to keep organized,ause anything that makes my life easier, i'm using. "hey cortana, remind me we have a play date tomorrow at noon" i need that in my world. >> reporter: after more than a decade, cal harris has finally shaken his legal albatross. >> three times i've been ripped away from my kids and that's been hard. >> reporter: minutes after his acquittal last week, he lets "20/20" tag along as he gives new meaning to the term free ride. putting the courthouse and the

case in his rear view mirror. >> total relief. just all this pressure and all this weight that's been on my shoulders, you know, for so long, finally, finally some calm in my life. >> reporter: but just beneath the calm, bitterness. harris isn't satisfied with exoneration. he wants retribution against those who prosecuted him. >> they were enjoying every moment of going after me. it was sport for them, it was entertainment for them. >> reporter: harris and his legal team say they'll file a civil suit in the coming months alleging misconduct by the former tioga county district attorney and new york state police. >> what we have on them is going to be shocking when it comes time for the trial. >> reporter: doesn't part of you just want to let this go? i mean you said that they robbed you of 15 years of your life? >> no, no, why? >> reporter: don't you just want to put that behind you? >> why? >> reporter: so you can live the rest of your life. >> and let them do this to somebody else? >> reporter: in a statement the

new york state police say, "we continued to pursue all leads, right through the last trial. we continue to stand by the work our investigators did on this case." the four harris children are now estranged from their mother's family, who declined an interview. those kids have stood by their father throughout the entire ordeal. >> reporter: do you think about sacrifice? do you think about the stuff that you've lost because your dad has been involved with this seemingly endless battle with the law? >> yeah, definitely. he was gone for like four years at one point. and that's a lot of time to miss when you're growing up as a kid. >> reporter: they have also grown up mostly without their mother michele, whose memory they hope will not be forgotten. you think about her often? >> yeah, i do. i try to be the person that she would want me to be. >> reporter: out of all of these is there one that you like best? okay, why? >> she just seems so happy. >> reporter: cal harris is happy to be home but he is not basking

in the glow of that legal victory. well aware of all that has been lost. >> there's going to be no celebrating at my house. there's no winners here. everybody loses. michele loses, her family loses, my kids lose, the taxpayers of tioga county lose, there's no winners here. >> so, based on what you just saw, how would you have voted on one of those juries? let us know. and tuesday night, robin roberts' exclusive interview with bobby brown. >> tuesday night, bobby brown, with whitney and bobbi kristina gone. emotion emotional, deeply private. >> that was the first time i saw

her do drugs. >> cocaine? >> yes, ma'am. >> the marriage. >> i left the marriage with nothing. >> the unimaginable pain. >> the hardest thing i had to do in my life was let my daughter go. my baby is gone. >> now, the first steps on the road back. >> the robin roberts special "20/20" everyone will be talking about. tuesday night on abc. >> and tomorrow on "20/20" saturday, i look at o.j. fever. why o.j. simpson is back in the news. i'm elizabeth vargas. >> and i'm david muir. we'll see you tomorrow night. have a great friday night. good night. coming up next on "action news", a farmer gets stuck, chest deep in the grain silo,

delicate balancing act to get him out safely and that is next. this is the pennsbury pharmacy on new falls road in levittown. and, it looks like your basic, neighborhood pharmacy, and that it is. and, this morning it was the scene of a attempted robbery